I was sent this photo last week, taken when I was on stage at the Air NZ Health & Safety reps conference. My first thought, what the heck (heck replaces the original word), I look like Mr Bean, I need to start focussing on my facial expressions to be a better presenter.
Having now pondered, I see no need to change, for this is me. I have many uncontrolled facial expressions when I speak, they are natural. I suspect some of them are learned, most are probably due to my over-active mind - the unrelenting voice inside my head.
Having recently discovered that I have AH - Attention Hyperactivity - explains a lot about who I am. Note, for me it is not a ‘Disorder’, nothing is a Disorder, if anything it is simply a ‘Difference’.
Looking back at my report cards from primary school, all of the indications were present - "Disruptive in class", "Needs to focus more", "Has the ability but doesn't use it." ADHD wasn't a known diagnosis back in my day, it was managed by punishment. The strap, the cane, standing outside the principal’s office…
I became the class clown to cover my inability to learn.
It wasn't until the age of 35, when I was at the police college, that a behavioural science instructor showed me how to learn in different ways. She freed me to learn in my own way, not the way that others learned. My method, rote learning. Not in the usual way of repetitive reading, in an active way.
Writing what I needed to learn in a scribble that only I could read - on paper, on whiteboards, on stick-it notes, everywhere. By the time I had finished, the classroom where I studied each night look like a sauvant or weird scientist had been writing formulas over the walls.
With this new discovery, I was fully engaged in education, a new world had opened, one that was fascinating. I was off on a race, quenching the thirst of a curious mind. A Masters, two Diplomas, doing a third Diploma, published author of two best-sellers, writing a third book on managing anxiety, and so it goes.
On reflection, this photo is who I am, me. Natural, normal (who amongst us is truly normal!), authentic. I have no doubt, given the wonderful feedback after each presentation or workshop, that being authentic is the key for me.
Could it be the same for you? Being you, who you truly are, is so liberating. Freeing you to be authentic, to be who you really are, to be at your best.
Looking back can be helpful - to good times, to make amends, to learn, or to see how far we have come - but never look back to regret what occurred. Never, ever look back with regret. "It is what it is, because it was what it was." I have this statement tattooed on my chest to remind me that I am where I am because of my past.
You be you, be proud, stand tall. Ignore those who have a problem with you being you, for they do not know you as you know yourself.
Let's talk!